The top Cairo-based Muslim body al-Azhar has slammed the recent massacre of nearly 150 people at the hands of the Somali militant group of al-Shabab in eastern Kenya.


The slaughter was carried out on April 2, when four militants from the extremist group killed 148 people, 142 of them students, and left at least 79 wounded at the campus of the Garissa University College after a day-long siege.

The Cairo-based body said in a Saturday statement posted on its Facebook page that al-Azhar “condemns the terrorist act committed by Somalia’s Shabab terrorist group in the Kenyan university of Garissa that left about 150 victims, and wounded tens of innocent students.”

According to the survivors, the gunmen separated and killed Christian and Jewish students.

Government officials said security forces killed all the assailants, rescuing around 600 other students.

Al-Shabab said the killings were in revenge for the presence of Kenyan troops in Somalia as part of the African Union’s force fighting the militant group.

The group has also threatened to kill more Kenyan people, warning them that it would target more schools and universities as well as workplaces and homes in the country.

“No amount of precaution or safety measures will be able to guarantee your safety, thwart another attack or prevent another bloodbath,” the militant group stated.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, however, vowed in a nationally televised address that Nairobi “shall respond in the severest ways possible” to the recent horrendous attack.

Kenya currently has over 3,000 soldiers stationed in southern Somalia, where they have been battling al-Shabab. The country sent troops into Somalia in late 2011 after the militant group carried out a series of raids inside Kenya.